RIO DE JANEIRO – In what capped off a clean sweep for the Brazilians against their American counterparts, Thiago Tavares earned a second-round TKO victory over fellow lightweight Spencer Fisher.

The fight capped off the preliminary card of UFC 134, which included fights on Facebook and Spike TV before the night’s pay-per-view main card.

UFC 134 took place Saturday at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janiero. It was the UFC’s first event in Brazil since 1998.

On a card full of Brazilians, Tavares moved his country to 3-0 against American fighters in preliminary-card action. He also provided one of the most impressive wins.

Tavares took the first round with a few key takedowns and a controlling top game that shut down Fisher’s offense. The second round was much of the same as Fisher was trapped against the cage in a seated position and eating dozens of punches and elbows. Ultimately, though, Tavares pulled Fisher away from the cage, took the mount position, and unloaded a steady stream of punches to earn the TKO win.

The stoppage came at the 2:51 mark of the round.

“I just want Joe Silva to put me in a fight soon because sometimes I [go] like six months without a fight,” said Tavares, who’s averaged just two fights per year over the past 36 months.

Tavares (16-4-1 MMA, 6-4-1 UFC) picks up arguably his biggest win under the UFC banner and now has just one defeat in his past five fights.

Nearly a year after a mental lapse resulted in a TKO loss to Nate Marquardt, Rousimar Palhares nearly cost himself another victory with a good ol’ fashioned brain fart.

Make no mistakes about it; Palhares dominated fellow middleweight Dan Miller in convincing fashion. But the premature celebration of what he thought was a first-round TKO victory nearly ended in disaster in the night’s first Spike TV “UFC Prelims” fight.

After some initial exchanges, Palhares pulled guard and immediately grabbed an arm. Miller escaped, but once back on their feet, Palhares stunned him with a front kick to the chin and then picked him up and slammed him to the mat. Once back up, Palhares then blasted Miller with a head kick, unloaded some violent ground and pound while his opponent turtled up, and then inexplicably raised his hands in victory and climbed atop the cage for a celebration.

Referee Herb Dean, though, never waved off the fight, and after some initial confusion, quickly restarted the fight. In a stunning turn of events, Miller then dropped Palhares with a quick left to the chin, but Palhares quickly recovered and closed out the bizarre round with a takedown.

The action continued in the second round, but Palhares got the better of it after delivering a bloodying assault from top position. While standing over his opponent, Palhares delivered a steady stream of punches and elbows for more than four minutes. The lopsided round was enough to earn a 10-8 score on the MMAjunkie.com scorecard.

Palhares, though, was spent by the third round. Other than a few counter-punches, the clearly exhausted fighter seemed content to survive the round, thanks to the lead he built through the first two rounds. Miller landed some clean shots, but he couldn’t put together any sustained attacks and ultimately sent the fight to the judges.

They awarded Palhares the victory via scores of 29-27, 30-27 and 30-25.

“It was a very hard fight,” Palhares said through a translator. “He was tough the whole way, but God willing, I was able to get this far.”

Palhares (13-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) now has won five of his past six fights, all in the UFC. The lone loss came to Marquardt, who quickly battered the Brazilian en route to a TKO win when Palhares stopped working a leg lock to complain that his opponent was slippery.

Miller (13-6 MMA, 5-5 UFC), meanwhile, is stuck in a 2-5 skid.

Thiago dominates Mitchell in featured Facebook fight

Paulo Thiago rode the wave of the crowd’s energy, and the Brazilian fighter earned an impressive and well-rounded unanimous-decision victory over American welterweight David Mitchell in the night’s featured Facebook fight.

After a pre-fight introduction fit for a king, the Brazilian special-forces officer unloaded a variety of weapons, including solid combinations, lunging punches, switch kicks, slick takedowns and an active top game. The sold-out crowd roared through most of the early-fight dominance.

Knowing he was down on the scorecards, Mitchell came out firing late in the final round, and rather than single lunging punches, he sat in the pocket and delivered combinations. But it was too little too late against Thiago, who put together his own combos before sealing with the deal with a late-fight drag-takedown once he got his opponent’s back.

In the end, all three judges scored it 30-27 for the shutout win.

“I was going through a really tough moment in time, but I trained really hard for this,” Thiago said.

Thiago (14-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC), who recently suffered back-to-back decision losses to Martin Kampmann and Diego Sanchez, avoids a third-straight defeat with the much-needed win. Mitchell (11-2 MMA, 0-2 UFC), who entered the UFC with an undefeated record, fails to record a first UFC win for the second time.

Assuncao shuts out Eduardo

In his first fight on his home soil, Brazilian featherweight Raphael Assuncao dominated the action in workmanlike fashion to earn a unanimous-decision victory over Johhny Eduardo.

A competitive and fast-paced first round saw Assuncao score a takedown and do some damage from the top with elbows and punches. Eduardo initially fended off the takedowns in the second round and mixed in some solid low kicks to slow the advances. But Assuncao soon closed the distance and again got the fight to the mat, where he controlled the action.

In the final round, Assuncao calmly positioned out of a leg lock as Eduardo worked from the bottom after another takedown. He then ate some leather from Eduardo late in the round, but Assuncao survived and closed out the fight with a clean sweep on the judges’ scorecards.

The Brazilian crowd had little time to decide which countryman to cheer before Erick Silva uncorked a vicious overhand right that sent fellow welterweight Luis Ramos to the mat.

In the Brazilian vs. Brazilian matchup, Silva missed on his first shot but lunged forward with a looping right hand that connected flush to his his opponent’s chin. Ramos tumbled to his back, and Silva quickly pounced with a rapid succession of hammerfists to force referee Herb Dean’s intervention.

The TKO stoppage came just 40 seconds into the fight. Ramos, who seemingly was knocked in and out consciousness with the hammerfists, immediately tried to protest the stoppage but stumbled as he tried to get back to his feet.

“This is an unbelievable dream to be fighting hear in Rio in the UFC,” Silva said through a translator. “I trained that right punch very much.”

Silva (13-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC), who won the first-ever Jungle Fight welterweight title in his previous bout, now has won nine straight fights, including the past four via stoppage. Ramos (19-7 MMA, 0-1 UFC) snaps a three-fight win streak.

Alcantara tops fellow Brazilian newcomer Arantes

In the first of three Brazilian vs. Brazilian matchups, featherweight Yuri Alcantara topped fellow UFC newcomer Felipe Arantes for a decisive unanimous-decision victory.

In the largely grappling affair, Alcantara dominated the action on the mat but often spent more time jockeying for position than delivering any real damage. In fact, his stand-up game proved rather lacking early in the fight, but he did enough on the mat to win rounds.

With referee Mario Yamasak issuing surprisingly quick stand-ups in the later rounds, Alcantara countered a head kick with a quick right hand that scored a third-round knockdown. It helped seal the deal for the 31-year-old, who simply shut down the 23-year-old Arantes.

In UFC 134’s only matchup without a Brazilian fighter, Canadian featherweight Yves Jabouin overcame Ian Loveland’s early storm and ultimately scored a decision victory in the night’s opening bout.

Loveland immediately fired off lunging punches and relied on dirty boxing once in the clinch. He also scored some early ground and pound after a takedown. But Jabouin grabbed the momentum with a late-round right to the chin that staggered his opponent.

Jabouin then became the aggressor in the following two rounds. He mixed in kicks from varying angles with rangier punches from distance. Loveland attempted some takedowns as his desperation grew in the third round, but Jabouin either stuffed them or quickly returned to his feet, where his counter-punches scored frequently.

Only the first round appeared to be up for debate, but Jabouin earned the win via surprising split decision with scores of 27-30, 29-28 and 29-28.

Jabouin (16-7 MMA, 1-1 UFC), a former WEC fighter previously stuck in a 1-3 skid, likely saved his job with the victory. Loveland (14-9 MMA, 1-2 UFC), who won his UFC debut for his seventh straight victory, now has suffered back-to-back decision losses.

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